Extremely slow backup to tape

[darisb]

Our backups have been running great for the past couple of weeks. We have configured our jobs to back to disk initially, then the weekly backups are copied to tape (as a secondary job). Last week the the throughput on out backup to tape job was very erratic and the job failed a couple of times. The initial backup to tape jobs continued to run fine. Yesterday I dug into the backup system and discovered that all of the firmware was very out of date. I updated the firmware for the Dell Powervault TL2000 library and drives. I upgraded Veeam B & R from 9 to 9.5. Of course I rebooted the system several times. After the upgrades, the backups to tape seem to run faster. The backup to tape throughput is not choppy like it was last week, but it won't go any faster than 14.6 MB/s. The library has a 1GB iSCSI bridge, and it already had the current firmware. I verified that it is run Jumbo frames, by pinging from the server to the tape library.

I opened a case with Veeam, and attached the logs for the backup to tape job. The tech told me to reboot everything and contact the tape library vendor. This morning put a crossover cable between the Veeam server and the iSCSI bridge on the tape library. I am still able to ping jumbo frames and the job is still running at 14.6 MB/s.

Any ideas?

Veeam Case ID: 01997173

[darisb]

It turned out to be the firmware. The version that I downloaded and installed had a known issue with throughput. The Dell tech installed a version that was one version newer, and my backup to tape jobs performance returned to normal.

[Dima P.]

Hi Daris,

Thanks a lot for sharing. Please, do not forget to update this thread with the performance results for your tape jobs.